Social Identity Theory

Question 1

What is the Social Identity Theory?

Answer 1

It is the identity an individual forms of themselves based on their group memberships

Question 2

What does the social identity theory argue?

Answer 2

That a person does not have just one ‘personal self’ but several social selves which correspond to group membership

Question 3

What are ‘in-groups’?

Answer 3

A group to which an individual belongs to i.e. family, college
- An individuals identity is a combination of the different in-groups that they belong to
- Individuals often have a variety of different identities based on each specific group that they belong to
- Individuals may choose their in-groups i.e. friend groups however there are some in-groups where individuals have no say e.g. nationality, sex, religion

Question 4

What are ‘out-groups’?

Answer 4

Groups to which an individual does not belong to
- Negative attitudes to out-groups can lead to prejudice and discrimination

Question 5

What are the 4 concepts of the social identity theory?

Answer 5

1. Social Identity - core identity
2. Social Categorisation
3. Positive Distinctiveness
4. Social comparison

Question 6

What is social categorisation?

Answer 6

Is the process where we identify which groups we belong to and which groups we don’t. Groups we belong to are known as ‘in-groups’ and groups we don’t belong to are known as ‘out-groups’.

Question 7

What is social identification?

Answer 7

Takes place after deciding to belong to the group. This is the process of adopting the norms of the group and taking on the characteristics of the group

Question 8

What is social comparison?

Answer 8

Justifying our group membership. We seek to achieve positive self-esteem by positively comparing our in-group to an out-group to achieve positive distinctiveness.
We favour the traits of our in-group, even if we didn’t necessarily choose to be a part of that group ourselves

Question 9

What is Positive Distinctiveness?

Answer 9

When we distinguish our group to be better than other groups

Question 10

What is saliency?

Answer 10

The quality of something that makes it stand out/grab our attention. e.g. Woman in a men’s changing room

Question 11

What is in-group favouritism?

Answer 11

When an individual is more likely to give higher awards to people within their own group

Question 12

Social Identity Switching:

Answer 12

• Identity switching can happen daily, for example being a member of our work team to being a member of a friendship group
• Different environments can trigger these changes/switches making them salient in an individuals mind
• For example being in work meeting may mean your identity is salient whereas being at a football match may activate your identity as a football fan
• Social identity switches allow us to adapt to different situations & surroundings

Question 13

What are some drawbacks to the social identity theory?

Answer 13

• It describes but does not accurately predict human behaviour
• It argues that whichever identity is most salient is most likely to determine our behaviour - why in some cases is our personal identity stronger than in-group identity?
• The theory in isolation is reductionist, it fails to address the environment that interacts with the ‘self’
• There may be other environmental factors which play a role in behaviour of one’s sense of ‘in-group’ identity